Fantrolls!: Theron Cypris and Helise Garmer Picture

Your name is THERON CYPRIS. Though in RECENT SWEEPS you have associated yourself with the UNDERGROUND SUFFERIST CULT, you have always been QUITE THE SUCCESSFUL HUNTER, with one sole exception. Somehow you managed to GET ONE SIDE OF YOUR FACE SHREDDED, and might have died if you hadn't been DESPERATE enough to make a DEAL WITH DANNRU CALLIN for life-saving medicine. Luckily, you have just gotten yourself out of THAT RATHER NASTY DILEMMA. You were SAVVY ENOUGH to pick up the basics of PILOTING A SHUTTLE, and thus when the need arose for Callin to HIJACK SAID SHUTTLE, you were in a prime position to PAY HIM BACK. You now find yourself IN OUTER SPACE, without your wolf lusus Orion but FREE FROM THE THREAT OF CONSCRIPTION. Incidentally, Callin being on the same ship as you IS STILL A THING THAT IS HAPPENING, and oh fuck don't go pale for him DON'T GO PALE FOR HIM.

Your name is HELISE GARMER, and YOU ARE GOING TO DIE. In fact, EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE WILL DIE. Eventually. And more often than not, they TEND TO FIND THEIR WAY TO YOU BEFOREHAND. You do what you can for them, such as COMFORT THEM, put them OUT OF THEIR MISERY, and BURY THEM PROPERLY. You do the same for the LIVING as well – after all, THEY'RE ALL GOING TO DIE, so why not be nice to them before they go? You had a relatively SIMPLE LIFE before all this SUFFERIST BUSINESS. A certain accident CRIPPLED YOUR BACK, but you SURVIVED, which is nice, and continued to tend to your GRAVEYARD. Though you are CRIPPLED, trolls tend to underestimate HOW STRONG YOU ARE; after all, you do QUITE A LOT OF DIGGING, with or without the help of your lusus, BEOWOOF. Trolls of the NOT-YET-DOOMED VARIETY often visited you to see if their MISSING ACQUAINTANCES had ended up in your MASS CEMETERY. Luckily your PSYCHIC ABILITIES allow you to know THE NAMES OF THE DEAD, which makes identification THAT MUCH EASIER. You organized your graveyard by NAME RATHER THAN BLOOD, and you were quick to follow the TEACHINGS OF THE SUFFERER. After all, EVERYONE IS EQUAL WHEN THEY'RE DEAD.

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So I wrote a scene with the fantrolls I already had, and said scene required a couple of background Sufferist trolls that for some reason I became fixated on, and then named and developed. What the hell is wrong with me.

Anyway, I based both of them off of gods from two different mythologies. Theron's motif is the Greek goddess Artemis, while Helise's is Hel, the Norse ruler of the Underworld. (Specifically, she receives the souls of those who died of sickness or old age, and not in battle). Originally Theron's lusus was going to be a hunting dog, but I changed it to a wolf so that the two of them wouldn't have the same lusus. Helise's lusus is based off of Garmr, the bloodstained watchdog of Helheim. I couldn't resist the pun.

Please ignore Theron's tail. I read a couple of Petstuck fics, and a common Petstuck trend is to give them tufted tails like that, so I drew it as a joke and then it came out so nice that I couldn't bring myself to erase it. He doesn't actually have a tail.

Hel's character gave me the most trouble, but now that I have her nailed down, she's actually kind of fun. She's sort of a nihilist in that she's constantly aware that everyone is going to die, including her, and growing up in the second-lowest caste in a place like Alternia with a crippled back exposed her to just how uncaring her world is. There's also the fact that for some reason dying trolls always find their way to her, or her to them. Nevertheless, somewhere down the line she saw her uncaring deathworld and thought, "Why not be kind?" So she'll keep them company in their last moments, or put them out of their misery if they ask her to, and she'll bury them in her graveyard and mark the graves with their names. It's one of the reasons she hasn't been culled yet; other trolls know that if any of their friends or quadrants go missing and die, they can always be found in Helise's graveyard.

Theron's a hunter, of course. I actually designed a fetch modus for him, too; it's a Moon modus. Basically, when he captchalogues something, it becomes a "new moon", and it can't immediately be retrieved. As time passes, it "waxes", and gets easier to retrieve until becoming a "full moon", when he can retrieve it at will. If he doesn't, it "wanes" until it becomes a new moon again, and the cycle continues. It requires timing and forward-thinking to use, or continually captchaloguing several of the same thing over time so he can retrieve one whenever he needs it. Personality-wise, he's a nice enough guy, and he's unfailingly loyal, which is why he is quite willing to allow Dannru to hijack the ship, since doing so would save the lives of all its passengers. He's also very much against the caste system, since he believes in judgment according to strength and merit rather than birth.